Razorfish vs Saint Elmo's

Retail Media Networks: Growth Levers Beyond Trade Dollars

In a panel at ADWEEK House Advertising HQ co-hosted with Albertsons, Julian Mintz, VP of ad sales at Albertsons Media Collective, and Dani Mariano, CEO of Razorfish, discussed the evolving role of retail media networks (RMNs) in the marketing mix. Mintz emphasized the need for closer alignment between media and merchandise teams to avoid scenarios where campaigns promote out-of-stock products. Mariano reframed retail media not as an additional cost but as an opportunity to round out compressed budgets, while Mintz described retail media dollars as a 'growth lever.' They highlighted the power of leveraging retail data—even for non-endemic brands—by combining it with other consumer insights to build a robust customer picture. The panel underscored that success is ultimately measured by driving brand sales and demonstrating tangible business impact.

• Albertsons Media Collective's VP of ad sales, Julian Mintz, and Razorfish CEO Dani Mariano participated in a panel on retail media.
• Mintz cited an example where a campaign promoted an out-of-stock product due to lack of communication between media and merchant teams.
• Mariano said retail media dollars should not be seen as trade dollars but as an opportunity to round out compressed budgets.

Agency 'Black Box' Is Breaking, Says Horizon's Bob Lord

Bob Lord, president of Horizon Media and former CEO of Razorfish who led digital transformation at IBM, argues that many agencies are focused narrowly on cost-cutting with AI rather than using AI to drive advertiser growth. Lord says supply-chain opacity, siloed tech stacks and hidden programmatic costs persist, and that transparency, open-source approaches and performance-based compensation models can help agencies become true growth partners. At Horizon, Lord says the agency is shifting toward payment tied to client business outcomes and is pushing for transparent contracts that pass publisher discounts to clients. He calls for systems that let clients self-serve campaign insights and for tighter integration of creative and media to deliver measurable business impact.

• Bob Lord is president of Horizon Media and previously served as global CEO of Razorfish and led digital transformation at IBM.
• Lord says Horizon Media is shifting its model toward performance-based compensation, getting paid when marketers achieve business goals.
• Horizon Media CEO Bill Koenigsberg includes buying-transparency clauses in contracts and passes publisher discounts to clients, according to Lord.

Data Trust Crisis: Customer Data Quality Declines

The article warns that marketing organizations face a growing "data trust" crisis: privacy changes, fragmented platforms, and AI-generated/inferred signals are degrading the accuracy and reliability of customer data. It promotes a MarTech Conference session (online, Sept. 2, 2026) titled “The data trust crisis: Why your customer data is getting worse,” featuring speakers from Actable, Razorfish, Tealium, and Ana Mourão, which will examine technical and regulatory drivers of data decay and methods (e.g., confidence-scored approaches, governance playbooks) for maintaining personalization and measurement when datasets are imperfect.

• MarTech is running a session titled “The data trust crisis: Why your customer data is getting worse” at its online MarTech Conference on Sept. 2, 2026.
• Speakers announced for the session include Craig Howard (chief solutions officer, Actable), Ana Mourão (founder and author of The Experimental Marketer Framework), Ryan Warren (chief CRM officer, Razorfish), and Zack Wenthe (director of product marketing and customer data evangelist, Tealium).
• The article states privacy changes, fragmented platforms, and AI-inferred signals are actively undermining customer data quality and personalization.

ING Deutschland: First major campaign by Saint Elmo's

ING Deutschland has appointed Saint Elmo's as an additional agency for strategy and creative in August 2026. The creative agency, which won the pitch against several competitors, has now unveiled its first major campaign for the financial services provider. The campaign, titled '1000 Meinungen' (1000 Opinions), focuses on retirement savings. Details of the campaign execution are limited due to the paywall, but the partnership marks a significant addition to ING's agency roster.

Dallmayr launches new umbrella campaign for Italian coffee moments at home

Dallmayr, the German premium coffee brand, has launched a new umbrella brand campaign titled 'Jedes Mal besonders' (Every time special). The campaign aims to position Dallmayr as the brand for special coffee moments at home, evoking Italian café culture. The centerpiece is a 20-second TV commercial created by agencies Fantomas and Saint Elmo's, with production by E+P Commercials, directed by Duncan Winecoff. The spot features a couple dressing up for a fancy restaurant but ultimately enjoying coffee at home, reminiscent of a recent Frosta campaign. The campaign includes five TV and digital spots for Dallmayr's product ranges: Prodomo, Crema d’Oro, Home Barista, and Röstkunst, each telling a distinct coffee moment. The commercials will run online from now until end of November, and on linear TV from October 26 to November 15.

• Dallmayr launched a new umbrella brand campaign with the motto 'Jedes Mal besonders'.
• The campaign includes a 20-second TV commercial created by agencies Fantomas and Saint Elmo's.
• The commercial was produced by E+P Commercials, directed by Duncan Winecoff.

Penny Rewards Funny TikTok Comments with Shopping Vouchers

German discount supermarket chain Penny has launched an interactive TikTok campaign called 'Comment Coupons' to reward users who post particularly funny and creative comments on its videos. Running from June 1 to the end of September, the campaign uses a proprietary AI scoring system to evaluate comments based on community resonance and content relevance, assigning voucher values of 10, 25, or 50 euros. So far, over 4,000 comments have been rewarded with a total of 45,000 euros in vouchers. The campaign was developed by lead creative agency Saint Elmo's, with social media execution by Charles & Charlotte, media planning by Pion3ers, and AI support from Plan.Net Belgium. Digital out-of-home billboards in eight German cities also displayed rewarded comments. The initiative aims to strengthen Penny's brand platform 'Echte Freude' (Real Joy).

• Penny launched the 'Comment Coupons' campaign on June 1, running until end of September.
• The campaign rewards funny TikTok comments with vouchers worth up to 50 euros.
• Over 4,000 comments have been rewarded with a total of 45,000 euros in vouchers.